Computer game music sounding dry.

[jahtao]

Don't compress it.

Why can't you hear the verb on little speakers? Is it because it's quite a dark verb? In which case brighten it or loose some low mid.

Have you tried lengthening the decay instead of turning it up?

Your mix doesn't sound very robust. A good mix should work ok on most systems. But I'd argue tailoring your mix to work in the shittiest of systems is somewhat of a loosing proposition.

Have you compared to other classical mixes?

How are you applying this verb? Are you applying it equally to all your instruments? Perhaps that is part of the problem.

Good luck.
Matt

[Weirwood]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm basically using the hall presets on the Lexicon. I'm applying as an insert to a group in cubase an then routing most of the stuff through that group (or sending to that group if I want less).

Yea, I could lengthen the delay.. It's fairly long already though.

Agreed that a robust mix should work on most systems buts that's what I'm basically trying to sort out now.

Here's the track... not finished, but you get the idea.

4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download Descent From Heaven.mp3


Cheers again.

Mike

[starcrash13]

Sounds pretty dry to me on a good system. The strings and brass are fairly wet, but I'd say try more reverb in general. Especially the percussion if you're going for cinematic.

[Weirwood]

Thanks ok.



Actually I didn't put much on the percussion... Cheers. I'll do that.

[londontown]

another thing...on a game I just did last year we had to really restrict the dynamic range due to the immense amount of gunfire and sound we had to compete with. That actually helped the tails a lot, as they got inevitably brought up. So you might consider limiting the mix to some extent, as well as working on the frequency colour of the tail. Massey limiter sorted us out brilliantly (sometimes in combo with Vari-MU and a massive passive to bring up the high 'air' that was lost to some extent in that process)

I now chain reverbs on the samples, when I'm forced to use them in the final mix...using one convolution reverb for the early reflection and part of the tail, blended to taste with a 480 large random hall at around 2.6 secs reverb time, (which IR-1 has an excellent one, lucky enough to have the real thing, but the convolved one is pretty damn great in most convolution reverbs, certainly good enough on multiple tracks and nothing exposed like vocals etc.). That gives you a sense of depth from the reverb that's lacking from most orchestral work, and simulates the surround mics/artificial reverb combo that most scoring mixers favour.

The ambient sound of the environment (depending on the game, of course) can really eat your tails too. My mixer and I ended up redoing quite a few tracks once they were slid in...playing them in context they sounded very different. That said, the speaker systems on computers and consoles are not often as crappy as they once were, so don't worry so much about that. They tend to flatter, though it's worth checking on a pair of cheap speakers, and being careful with the dynamics.

[Weirwood]

Thanks Londontown,


Thats very helpful. Yea, I'll have a play with limiting the mix, and maybe groups of strings etc.

I'll play with the reverb settings you suggested, the reverb combo is what was at the back of my mind and had been implementing with woodwinds on other mixes.

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.


Mike

[Henchman]

The MPX1 is a pretty crappy reverb to be honest.
I've always found it to have very little definition and depth.
In fact, I woudls ay most plug-in verbs these days soud better than an MPX1.
I would suggest forget using the outboard verb, and finding a really good plug-in verb. Especially for surround.
IE., ALtiverb which some really great sounding responses.

[Weirwood]

Yea, absolutely.

You're right, but at the same time I should be able to get a decent sound out of it.


I was working on the track today, and it is sounding better... thanks to some suggestions here.